#lordlyred

Litten, a Fire type, and (Shiny) Oshawott, a Water type, were picked as starter Pokémon for their complementary color schemes.  Color continuity also heavily influenced the following choices.

Sky: Gligar. "It builds its nest on a steep cliff." "It sails on the winds with its limbs extended to strike from the sky."  Ground/Flying type. Stars: Cleffa, the Star Shape Pokémon, "believed to be a star reborn." "On late nights illuminated by shooting stars, it gazes intently skyward, as if thinking of its home." Fairy type. Wings: (Shiny) Galarian Farfetch'd. "The stalk this Pokémon carries in its wings serves ... to cut down opponents." "The Farfetch'd of the Galar region are brave warriors ..." Fighting type. Bloom: Flabébé (Red Flower), the Single Bloom Pokémon. "It draws out and controls the hidden power of flowers." "Flabébé wears a crown made from pollen it's collected from its flower. The crown has hidden healing properties." Fairy type. Moon: Chinchou, a Pokémon of distance and duality, it discharges "positive and negative electricity between ... its two antennae ..." It is only found on the "dark ocean floor ..." where it "lives ... beyond the reach of sunlight" and humanity. Water/Electric type. Sun: Deerling, Spring form. Once Spring begins, the length of time the sun stays in the sky begins to increase. Deerling possesses the Chlorophyll ability, which raises its speed in harsh sunlight. Normal/Grass type.

Dark: Noibat. "They live in pitch black caves." and "After nightfall, they emerge from the caves they nest in ..." Flying/Dragon type. Light: Fomantis. It can only evolve during the day. "During the day, Fomantis basks in sunlight ... " Grass type. 

In 1993, Oliver Wood's last year at Hogwarts, his squad boasts no turnover for the second straight season, but after disappointing results in their last two campaigns, pressure mounts on what is likely the most complete team the House Cup has seen in decades. 

Unsurprisingly, Potter, the youngest, shows the first signs of cracking, during their opening bout with Hufflepuff, the duration of which is played in driving, blinding rain. Potter falls from his broom, and Cedric Diggory catches the snitch, granting the Badgers the shocking upset, and dredging up doubts about the mental make-up of Gryffindor's team. 

These doubts grow heavier, when, against the Eagles, perhaps consumed by the need to prove outside skeptics wrong, Potter fails to afford his talented chaser unit hardly any time to cut into the Lions' standings deficit before catching the snitch and putting an immediate end to the match. After a far more measured beatdown of the Eagles pushes the Snakes to a 200-point standings lead, the '93 Cup appears out of reach for this Gryffindor bunch. There seems to be no hope for Gryffindor's chaser trio to match their Silver and Green counterparts' far superior broom speed, particularly as only last season they had been overwhelmed to the tune of a 60-oh deficit in a blink by that same Snakes' trio. Early mutters are arising about how only the poorest of captaincies could allow for three years of an unchanging, stacked outfit to fail to win even a single Cup.

The beginning of the match itself, however, flips the script. The Gryffindor chasing unit rolls out a bevy of new formations and complex maneuvers, and catch their opposite numbers badly off-guard. On the other end of the pitch, Wood plays with such fervor, he must seem to the Snakes' scoring hopefuls as though he has managed to deny the 4th exception to Gamp's law and split into three keepers to guard the Lions' hoops. High above, Potter twice feints, showing patience likely drilled into him by Wood after his carelessness in the previous match. The Snakes' less experienced seeker, fellow third-year Draco Malfoy, struggles to keep up. 

Amidst the early Lion onslaught, Snakes' captain Marcus Flint calls time, and his team attempts to respond to his message, with the match settling into a physical affair more suited to Slytherin's size at chaser. This proves to be a miscalculation, as the Gryffindor chasing trio bait the still-panicked Snakes, who resort to a slew of fouls in an effort to roughhouse the Gryffindor team out of the air. The Lions capitalize, pulling ahead into a 60 point lead, and Potter strikes, reminding onlookers just how deadly a seeker he can be. 

Triumphant, Wood is carried off the field by the twin Weasley beaters. His Lions have snapped their 7-year drought, returning Gryffindor to the pinnacle it hasn't found since Charlie Weasley's early seeking days.

Next week's article: "Weasley but True: The Fiery Conclusion to a Family's Sweeping Legacy"

In '85, Charlie Weasley's second year, he becomes Gryffindor's seeker, and they win the cup, then go on to defend it in his third year. In his fourth year he becomes captain of the team, but due to extraordinarily poor Beater play he suffers significant injuries that prevent them from winning their third consecutive Cup.

In his fifth year, after the old keeper graduates, Weasley replaces him with Oliver Wood, a second year. Second years rarely play keeper, since they typically aren't large enough to bear the brunt of the position, but Wood is particularly gifted, and the other options are particularly not. Weasley's gamble goes awry when a bludger knocks Wood in the head* and out of his first match two minutes in, an injury that spirals into another lost season for the Lions. 

In Weasley's sixth year and Wood's third, they prove to be a formidable duo, but a complete lack of competency at the chaser and beater positions holds them back from winning the Cup, as they finish an extremely narrow runner-up to the Eagles. In 1990, Weasley's seventh year, despite attention from several professional squads, he retires from Gryffindor's team to focus on his NEWT's for a planned future in dragon studies, and passes Gryffindor's captaincy to Wood.** 

1990 marks the first year twin Beaters Fred and George Weasley, Charlie Weasley's younger brothers, make the team. They are joined by fellow second-year Angelina Johnson, a promising young chaser. Despite the squad's best efforts, overall inexperience and particularly a black hole at the seeker position result in a crushing season, as the Lions fail to win a game. As a small silver lining, a particularly heroic effort from Wood helps the team to a draw with miserable Hufflepuff, despite the Badgers' seeker catching the snitch. As Hufflepuff is slaughtered by both Ravenclaw and Slytherin, Gryffindor escapes a last place finish thanks to more competitive losses to the Eagles and Snakes. 

In '91, Wood's second year as captain, the youngest House Quidditch player in a century joins the Lions, a young seeker named Harry Potter. Said to rival even Charlie Weasley, young Potter helps the team to two wins in two matches, leading to much excitement around Wood's promising outfit. However, an injury suffered by Potter in a mysterious school accident turns Gryffindor's season on its head, and the demoralized bunch suffers a historic loss to Ravenclaw in their final match, their worst in 300 years. 

In addition to Potter, new faces on the '91 team included 3rd year reserve team graduate Alicia Spinnet and second year Katie Bell, who complete a formidable chasing trio with Johnson. 

Entering Wood's semifinal year at Hogwarts and 3rd as captain, confidence in the Lions' line-up is sky-high. The unit wins their first match against Slytherin despite the entire Snakes team being outfitted with elite, latest-model brooms, when Potter, now a second year, evades a persistent bludger long enough to spot and catch the snitch early, before Slytherin's much-improved chaser speed can put the score out of reach. Potter recovers from a broken arm suffered at the end of that match in time for Gryffindor's showdown with the Badgers. However, disturbing petrifications rumored to hold a connection with the mysterious Chamber of Secrets result in the '92 Hogwarts Cup's cancellation just prior to the match. 

Stay tuned for an article summarizing the Lions' '93 season.

*Based exclusively on movie canon, nothing of the sort is known to have happened to Wood based on the books.